Freedom's Fall (19 page)

Tansy drifted awake, tucked tight between her men as usual.
A warm hand coasted up and down her thigh and she knew without opening her eyes
that her Enforcers were awake too.

“How did we end up in bed?” She remembered going to sleep in
the lair but nothing after that.

Rye pressed his lips to her neck, and her whole body
tingled. “The dragons kicked us out in the middle of the night, so we carried
you back here.”

He nipped at her skin, and when Dev cupped her breast in his
large, calloused hand she arched against them. “Why’d they kick us out?”

Her mates stilled, and the change in atmosphere was so quick
that any remnants of sleep evaporated. She opened a wary eye and watched her
men ease away a little. They didn’t break contact, but the hair on her nape
prickled at the cautious look on their faces.

Dev raised himself a little, his dark-purple hair spilling
over her naked body. “Our dragons received word that Willersby Lockmehdyhn was
trying to flee.”

“Flee where?”

Dev shrugged. “He was leaving his country estate in a hurry,
so I assume he was running for the coast. Once there he could easily arrange
transport to Allsgate.”

Tansy fought the queasy crawl of fear in her belly for
several breaths and then she did her best to block it out. “Did Zenbaylan and
Fellescend track him down?”

“Yes.” Rye rubbed a possessive hand over her thigh. “And you
might want to leave your queries there.”

She understood that he wasn’t telling her not to ask
questions—he was warning her about the possible answers. Tansy knew dragon
justice didn’t involve a courtroom, and she was beginning to sense it might
edge into the kind of brutality she’d find disconcerting. But this wasn’t about
her being comfortable, it was about seeing it through until the end. She did
her best to brace for anything. “They killed him, didn’t they?”

Rye leaned down to kiss her, turned to kiss Dev, then
wriggled down the bed until his arms were wrapped around her waist and his head
rested on her abdomen. “You tell her, Dev. You’re better at explaining things
than I am.”

Dev’s sour look made it clear that Rye had just dropped him
in it, but he manned up and told her the truth. “Yes, they killed him. Not quickly
and not with any dignity or mercy. The dragons have their own brand of
vengeance and they understand what it is to make someone suffer.”

Tansy couldn’t quite meet those arctic-blue eyes. “I’m not
sure how I feel about that. I’m relieved he’s gone but death seems rather…extreme.”

Dev shifted closer, sliding one arm under her shoulders and
wrapping his free hand around Rye’s considerable biceps. “I hate to break it to
you, honey, but the punishment wasn’t about you. If it had been a matter of
avenging your honor, of punishing Willersby for what he did to you in Allsgate,
then Rye and I would have claimed that privilege for ourselves.”

Rye squeezed her tight. “He still would have died but we
would have made it quicker than he deserved.”

“Willersby’s fatal error,” Dev continued, “was coming into
the lair. He breached Zenbaylan and Fellescend’s sanctuary and hurt someone
directly under their care and protection. The moment he stepped onto the
landing, he took justice out of our hands and placed it firmly under dragon
control.”

“You have no need to feel guilty.” Rye lifted his head just
enough to look her in the eye. “Willersby Lockmehdyhn made his own choices. He’s
lived here his whole life—he knows exactly who and what the dragons are, and he
knew the risks he was taking when he invaded our home.”

He rubbed his chin on her abdomen, his breath warm on her
skin. “And once our dragons claimed you, you became a high-risk target. Coming
after you was tantamount to suicide. Willersby knew that and still decided to take
the risk.”

That degree of ownership was a little dizzying for Tansy. It
was one thing to know she was loved and protected by her mates and their
dragons. It was quite another to be confronted with the gory practicalities of
dragon ownership. The soldier in her appreciated their hard line, but the woman
in her was slightly appalled.

“Those dragons are going to take some getting used to, aren’t
they?” Which she suspected was quite the understatement.

“Yes.” Rye snuggled down again, turning his head away. “But
the benefits far, far outweigh any negatives.” She was about ask what those
negatives might be when Rye’s big, warm hand cupped her mound and began a firm,
delectable massage. “Let’s talk about something else,” he murmured, applying
just enough pressure for Tansy’s breath to catch.

He kept up the massage and used one talented finger to
circle her clit. She flexed as much as she could with the way he had her pinned
down. “What do you want to talk about?” she asked in a breathy whisper.

“Let’s start with how you’re feeling. Do you need more rest,
or are you recovered enough for us to play?”

Tansy didn’t bother to look at her body, to see for herself
if the cuts, scrapes and bruises had healed. She just closed her eyes and did a
mental inventory, balancing her bumps and bruises against the need to reconnect
with her men. “I’m a bit dented for sure, but not enough to put a halt to
whatever you might have in mind.”

Rye’s finger slipped lower, circling her entrance. “If you’re
ready for us, we need to decide who gets to be in the middle this time.”

Really? Did they need to discuss that? Couldn’t they just…

“Fuck.”

Dev’s strangled exclamation snapped her eyes open and she
watched in fascination as his cock disappeared into Rye’s mouth. Rye’s finger
pushed deep inside her and he added a second as he timed his thrusts to the
surge of Dev’s hips. Dev cupped her chin, twisting her head up to meet his
mouth, and the moment they were lip to lip he dropped his hand and squeezed her
breast in a desperate grip.

He ravaged her mouth, nipping and biting, sucking her lips
and plundering her with his tongue. Hands on her breasts, he squeezed and
twisted her nipples as he undulated his huge body against her, fucking Rye’s
mouth.

The onslaught was so fast, so intense, that her orgasm built
with ferocious speed. Panting, her body quivering in sharp, micro-blasts of
pleasure, she let the tension build. She almost wept in frustration when Dev
pulled away. “Don’t come yet, Tansy.”

Then he looked down at Rye. “Put your mouth on her.”

Dev’s cock was released in a long, slow drag, and in a
single, muscular twist Rye slid down the bed. Pushing her legs high and wide,
he pointed his tongue and licked her up one side and down the other. Dev
reached down, spread her pussy lips with both hands and then bent at the waist.
His mouth met Rye’s and they both licked and sucked her, fucking her with
tongues and fingers. The sensation was so exquisite Tansy panted, desperate not
to come because she didn’t want this sensation ever to end.

They spread her legs higher and wider until she could hardly
breathe, her body bowed almost in half as they made room for themselves between
her legs. Tansy had been with them often enough to know their individual touches.
But open to them like this, she was drowning in so much pleasure there was only
hot mouths and careful teeth. She let go of everything, let them position her
how they would and focused on nothing but their touch and her hot, needy pussy.

The intense burn gathered and rebounded on itself over and
over until the sensations forced their way into the rest of her body. Her
muscles seized and she shook from head to toe, poised on the brink of oblivion.
Ruthlessly, they sent her over, obliterating her in a thousand shards of
ecstasy. Then they gathered all her pieces and held them safe until she was
ready to come back to them.

She drifted, weightless, without thought or meaning, nothing
but a ball of pleasure-filled inertia floating back to earth. And when she
finally arrived, her Enforcers were waiting for her, bodies hard and eyes
burning with desire.

The moment she was lucid, Dev moved to position himself over
her body, but Tansy laid her hand on his chest to stall him. “Wait.”

And just like that he froze. Twice her size and stronger
than anyone she’d ever met, desire beating hard and hot in his body, and he
stopped just because she’d asked. “I love you.” It wasn’t quite what she’d
meant to say, but when she opened her mouth, those were the words that came
out.

Dev’s blue eyes were a little wary. “We know that, honey. We
love you too.”

Yes, they did, and she felt it in every corner of her soul.
A joyous smile slipped free. “We’re together, and Willersby Lockmehdyhn is no
longer a threat. This is a fresh start for us.”

Rye smoothed his hand up her thigh and didn’t stop until his
hand was pressed tight against her core. “And?” He squeezed. “Get to the point,
honey.”

Tansy’s entire lower body started to smolder and she had to
fight off the urge to surrender to them. She wanted to give them something special,
something significant, and she wanted this night to be her first night of
freedom in every way that mattered.

“I want to choose,” she whispered.

Dev cupped her face, his hand warm and comforting against
her skin. “Choose what, Tansy?”

“Everything.” She sat up, wriggling until she could lean
against the headboard and look at their beautiful faces. “I choose you as my
mates, I choose our blacks as my mode of transport, and I choose tonight as my
official new beginning.”

She licked her suddenly dry lips and pressed down on the
nervous tangle in her belly. The first time Dev and Rye had made love to her,
she’d been too messed up to take charge of her sexuality. But now she had
healed enough to stop falling, all she had to do was spread her wings and fly.

Rye’s hand snaked around her knee, understanding dawning in
his lavender eyes. “What else do you choose, Tansy? Be explicit.”

Her heart thundered in her chest, but not from fear. These
men were hers, and it was only right that she ask them for what she wanted. “I
choose to make love to both of you at the same time. I want one of you in my
pussy, the other in my ass, and I want us to fuck until we’re boneless.”

Dev leaned forward, pressing his mouth to hers, firm and
quick. He leaned back just far enough to meet eye to eye. “You are amazing.
Just when I think I couldn’t be more proud of you, you take another step.”

Rye scrambled off the bed, and in that moment of distraction
Dev moved away, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her with him until they
stood at the foot of the bed. Cupping her face in his hands, he eased her
forward, leaning her into the hot, hard lines of his body as he took her mouth.

His lips were firm but soft, a silky-velvet glide as he
kissed his way from one side of her mouth to the other. As soon as he stroked
against her with his tongue, Tansy opened for him, but instead of surging
inside in the way she needed, he kept licking and nibbling her lips.

Snaking her arms around his neck, she tried to pull him down
tighter against her mouth, but it was like trying to move a mountain. Dev
chuckled, nipped a bit harder, and then sank to the floor, taking Tansy with
him.

Dev kneeled, ass on his heels, and splayed Tansy over his
lap. He finally deepened the kiss, holding her with strong, unyielding hands
while he plundered her mouth. Every nerve Tansy had sparked and crackled, and
her muscles wound tight. She surged closer, pressing her aching nipples against
his chest and rubbing her pussy over the hard length of his cock. Fisting her
hair with one hand, Dev banded the other around her back. He continued to
plunder her mouth, physically controlling her until she was locked against him
and utterly immobile. The passionate demands of his lips coupled with the easy
command over her body made her pussy throb in need. And the fact that she
couldn’t ease the ache made the fire burn hotter.

“Dev, please,” she gasped the instant his lips left hers. “I
need you inside me.”

He licked and sucked along her jawline. “I will be, soon.”

Not soon enough. She was so empty it hurt.

Dev moved on to her neck and she dropped her head back,
allowing him access to whatever part of her he wanted to touch. His huge hands
cupped her ass, squeezing and rubbing, and when he pulled her ass cheeks apart
she realized Rye had moved in behind her.

Wrapping her arms tight around Dev’s huge shoulders, Tansy
arched her back, pushing her ass out against the pull of his hands. Rye pressed
close, kissing her shoulders as he rubbed his gel-covered finger around her
anus. “You sure, honey?”

“Yes.” The old Tansy was still inside her, the hurt and
scared one, but the new Tansy was much stronger. This moment, this night,
belonged to the woman who had fought so hard to make herself anew. “I want you
both at the same time. My choice, Rye.”

His hand left her for a moment, and when it returned Rye
rubbed cool gel around her anus. Dev captured her mouth again, holding her
tight with one arm around her waist while the other hand played with her body.
He squeezed her nipples and stroked her clit. He pinched, pumped and massaged
until she was almost out of her mind. And all the while, Rye worked his magical
gelled fingers into her ass.

Her pleasure was on a loop, sensation zinging from breast to
pussy to ass and back again, over and over, leaving a continuous trail of
arousal. Her men drove her higher, working her with their hands and kissing
whatever piece of skin they could reach.

She was almost incoherent by the time Rye moved back and Dev
finally lifted her onto his cock. Her pussy was hot and swollen, insanely wet
and aching to be filled. Dev fitted himself against her and lowered her just
enough to take the head of his cock but no farther. She opened her mouth to
complain, but all that came out was a pathetic whimper.